I wonder if the MP has ever considered fixing the daft rules on road signs and
beer, vs the alternative of wasting teaching hours on obsolete units.
Imperial - only good for drinking and driving. Nope, I don't think that will
succeed as a tagline.
________________________________
From: Paul Trusten <trus...@grandecom.net>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Wed, January 9, 2013 1:33:21 PM
Subject: [USMA:52129] U.S. and UK metrication
Dear Mr. Percy,
Thank you very much for your quick reply to my letter and especially for
addressing the concerns of a foreigner. In the U.S., members of the House of
Representatives and the Senate rightly refuse to receive email from anyone but
one of their respective constituents, so I am honored by your expenditure of
valuable time. Yet, I can also see by your second email that I have pressed
one
of your hot buttons. I assure you it is also a hot button of mine, and has been
for 38 years.
I also apologize for my bumbling email-ery. I had wanted to finish my letter to
you, but if you keep reading my original message, you'll see it is incomplete.
On that last point I surely agree, except to say that there is confusion enough
on UK measurements without any change in education. On my visit to Edinburgh in
2009, I had to ask what the speed limit signs meant. They looked just like the
ones in Germany: red circle around a number. I learned by asking that they
meant
miles per hour. Perhaps it is time for the UK to change fully to the metric
system, roads included. My proposal is to finish what was started. Partial
metrication is not metrication. True metrication is what was done in Australia:
everything metric, right down to the grams of steak in restaurants and the
frame
of reference in warning signs ("no smoking within 5 meters"). I, above all
people, do not want to promote confusion in matters of measurement. But
metrication cannot succeed without teaching only ONE system. I am told that
metrication was the goal of your government's actions in 1965, and, as is the
case in the U.S., where an abortive attempt was made to change to metric in the
1970s, our countries still have work to do, as neither a man nor a country is
an
island any more.
Why this obsession with keeping the measurement of only beer in imperial
measurement? Is milk in imperial? I shopped in Edinburgh, and and found
consumer products generally to be metric. How can a nation exist with the
public emphasis on metric in some areas and a different emphasis in others?
Is
there a particular romance in being nonstandard?
I don't know if you have this problem in the UK, but here in the U.S., the
cultural prevalence of two systems of measurement, contrary to what you wrote
in
your article, surely does us harm. The healthcare system continues to condone
the use of teaspoonfuls and tablespoonfuls in medication orders. Our Institute
for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP, www.ismp.org ) informs me that there have
been, I believe, about 50 reports of unit mixups that have resulted in harm.
One teaspoonful is approximately 5 milliliters, so if the units are confused,
the result can be a fivefold overdose. At this very moment, I am involved in
working with U.S. authorities to eliminate non-metric units in that part of
healthcare in which I am involved.
I want to thank you very much for the opportunity for this dialogue, and I know
it must be a pain to have your Blackberry get you angry, but I have my iPhone
doing it all the time (grin). I hope to continue this conversation.
As I failed to identify myself before, I shall now say that I am,
SIncerely,
Paul R. Trusten
Registered Pharmacist
Vice President and Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org
trus...@grandecom.net
+1(432)528-7724
----- Original Message -----
>From: brigg.go...@gmail.com
>To: Paul Trusten ; brigg.go...@gmail.com
>Cc: n...@nctm.org
>Sent: 2013-01-09 11:45
>Subject: Re: It is called the INTERNATIONAL System of Units!
>
>Hello there,
>
>Imperial measurements are not going to be replaced on UK roads, not now, not
>tomorrow and not any time soon. Nor are we going to allow the sale of beer in
>litres.
>
>
>As such children must learn both. Why do you want to endanger road users and
>put
>children at risk by not having them learn the ONLY legal measure on our roads.
>Seems a bit backwards and ignorant of you.
>
>
>Regards
>Andrew Percy.
>Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
________________________________
>From: "Paul Trusten" <trus...@grandecom.net>
>Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2013 11:39:38 -0600
>To: <brigg.go...@gmail.com>
>Cc: <n...@nctm.org>
>Subject: It is called the INTERNATIONAL System of Units!
>
>
>Dear Mr. Percy,
>
>I am writing to protest extremely any move to revive the teaching of imperial
>units in British schools
>(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/9790670/Modern-schools-must-teach-imperial-measurements.html
> ).
>
>
>To this, you may be thinking, : "Well, you Yanks broke away from us, so this
>is
>none of your business." Not so. Measurement is everybody's business. And,
>the
>U.S. is one of the original signatories to the Meter Convention in 1875, thus
>making it a full partner in the building of the International System of Units.
>
>Still, what happens in the UK concerns us. I am writing today, not only to
>British interests, but to the educational interests on my side of the puddle
>in
>the U.S., to urge the elimination of the teaching of pre-metric units in our
>schools with all deliberate speed.
>
>
>We shall show reverent respect to those old units, by which we lived our lives
>for so many years. The Light Brigade will always ride half a league
>onward, Robert Frost will forever have miles to go before he sleeps, and
>people
>will continue to describe a slow process as "inching along." But, in terms of
>commerce and science, we have been in a global time for many years. Our planet
>is tinier than it has ever been. The inefficiencies (and, in my profession,
>the
>dangers) of there being two extant systems of measurement is a long-range
>practical problem that must be wrested from the political and cultural
>objections of the moment. Our national identities should be tied, not to our
>prejudice, but to our wisdom. To continue to teach the old units is to nod to
>the perpetuation of their continued use.
>
>
>In your article, you state that the coexistence of two measurement systems has
>not done your country
>
>
>Be they in London or Los Angeles, Manchester or Minneapolis, all school
>children
>should be learning only the SI metric system of measurement in school. To do
>otherwise would be a grand leap backward, which is opposite to the direction
>of
>the world. The chorus of naysayers, be they in your country or mine, does
>nothing but pull both of our lands down like quicksand. These were the same
>voices that told the train riders to stick with the stagecoach, and the
>automobile driver to revert to relying upon a horse.
>
>
>
